Ijlal Muzaffar, Associate Professor of Theory and History of Art and Design at the Rhode Island School of Design will present an intriguing answer to …why the chicken crossed the ocean?
If for some in 19th century England, Providence’s global reach was attested by its literary output, for many others in India, the city’s reach was experienced unknowingly by its chickens. Muzaffat will explore how and why the Rhode Island Reds (Rhodies) were known as the “local chicken” in his great-grandmother’s village in the middle of the Sindh desert in Southwest India (in what now is Pakistan) in 1898. Why, and how did the chicken cross the ocean? Was this simply an accident of history or a trace of a more complicated yet unexplored crosshatching between cities and people, empires, and revolutionaries, on two sides of the ocean?
Free. Registration required. Call 401.847.0292.
